Now China is thinking of sending warships to the area.
The high-seas drama heightened after the UN authorised land operations against the sea bandits who are currently demanding ransoms for a Saudi super-tanker, an arms-laden Ukrainian freighter and other ships.
China said it was considering sending warships to the pirate-infested waters as the International Maritime Bureau gave details of how Chinese sailors fought off an attack with the help of international navies.
A band of pirates boarded the "Zhenhua 4" on Wednesday, but the sailors held them off for several hours, giving the international coalition time to rush forces to the vessel.
"I'm actually very surprised that the crew managed to hold back the pirates. I don't know how they did it, but they did it," said Noel Choong, head of the IMB piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.
"Because of this action, the military helicopters came and they managed to chase the pirates away. The pirates on board eventually left the ship and the master is proceeding on his course," he told AFP.
The pirates seized a yacht crewed by two people and two commercial ships: a cargo vessel, the Bosphorus Progidy; and a tug serving as an oil industry support ship, said Mwangura.
Choong also said pirates had hijacked a Turkish cargo ship, a Malaysian tug boat and attacked three other vessels in the Gulf of Aden in the past week.
"Despite the European Union armada to patrol the Gulf of Aden, the pirates manage to attack and hijack ships because the number of warships is insufficient to secure the vast sea," said Choong.
But the force kept pirates from hijacking a Singapore tanker, an Italian cargo ship and a Greek ship last week, Choong said.
"Coalition forces deployed a helicopter to ward off the attacks. The three ships managed to escape," he said.
I hope some details of the attack filter out. I bet it was balls to the wall and wild.
Comments